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From Chanel No. 5 to Britney No. 11

Nicole Polizzi at a Perfumania store in New York last month to promote her latest fragrance, Snooki Couture by Nicole Polizzi.Credit
Tina Fineberg for The New York Times

AS consumers enter the high season of perfume shopping, the array of personalities, A-list and non-, with scents on the market — from Lady Gaga, Rihanna and Taylor Swift to the tattoo artist Kat Von D and Nicole Polizzi (Snooki from “Jersey Shore”) — might be overwhelming. These items are not White Diamonds, the Elizabeth Taylor perfume, so much as Cubic Zirconias.

“That’s what I would call the cheapening of celebrity,” said Catherine Walsh, who, as senior vice president of global marketing at Coty, has worked on fragrances from Jennifer Lopez, Sarah Jessica Parker and Gwen Stefani.

The first celebrities were big A-listers, she said. “Now, pretty much any celebrity, whether they be an actress, a performer, a musical artist, whatever — anybody who’s had some sort of even minimal career highlight in their life — the next thing they say is, ‘I need a fragrance,’ because it’s part of brand-building.”

The degrees of fame may differ, but the marketing of celebrity fragrances tends to be consistent, typically focused on strategic personal appearances, social media, news coverage and advertising. Often, other product releases are timed simultaneously, as with Rihanna’s latest album, “Unapologetic,” and her third and newest fragrance, Nude by Rihanna (she has some catching up to do: Britney Spears has 11 scents on her C. V.; Ms. Lopez, 18).

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Boyfriend, from the actress Kate Walsh, are among the myriad celebrity fragrances on the market.

Last month, about 75 young fans showed up on a brisk afternoon at a narrow Perfumania boutique around the corner from Macy’s in Herald Square to see Ms. Polizzi promoting her second fragrance, Snooki Couture by Nicole Polizzi.

Most attendees at the subdued event, who waited quietly in a steadily flowing line, seemed more interested in having their picture taken with her than actually buying anything, though Luzmarie Rosario, 20, a medical administrative assistant from Albany and a “Jersey Shore” fan, bought a pink-and-purple leopard-print bottle of Snooki by Nicole Polizzi, the star’s first fragrance, for $45. “It smells really good,” she said. “It has to smell good for me to buy it.” (A reporter detected notes of red strawberry Twizzlers.)

The event ended earlier than planned, though Ms. Polizzi stayed briefly to buy two men’s fragrances for her fiancé, Jionni LaValle. She said her new scent has notes like apple blossom and so-called cashmere woods, “which I thought sounded classy.”

Both Snooki and Snooki Couture sold out when Ms. Pilozzi first promoted them on a set of appearances on HSN, the home-shopping channel, where she has also offered a crocodile-shaped stuffed animal and bulbous bedroom slippers in shiny lime green or purple or zebra print.

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Sinner, from the tattoo artist Kat Von D.

This is prime season for fragrance of any stripe: November and December typically make up about 40 percent of the category’s annual sales, according to NPD, the market-research group, with department-store sales of celebrity scents at $55 million from January through August this year.

Even lesser-wattage stars can make big numbers, like the actress Kate Walsh, from the ABC series “Private Practice” and “Grey’s Anatomy” (no relation to Ms. Walsh of Coty). After making its debut on HSN in 2010, her first scent, Boyfriend, began selling at Sephora in 2011 and sold on a par there with scents by names like Hermès and Prada, said Jessica Hanson, vice president of merchandising for fragrances at Sephora. She declined to give figures.

The actress discussed the industry. “There are certainly people like Lady Gaga and others that are megastars that have the model that they put it out, it makes a gazillion dollars and then there’s drop-off and that’s it,” she said.“It’s kind of a tortoise-and-hare thing, and I would definitely be the tortoise, or Boyfriend is.”

She said she had financed her line with several million dollars of her own money. But for most fragrance companies, partnering with a celebrity, even one who is not a superstar, takes a substantial investment. Companies typically guarantee each personality a minimum fee regardless of sales, along with an advance payment, royalties and a marketing-and-advertising budget, according to Andy Cohan, a chief executive of ACI Licensing, a Los Angeles company that has negotiated deals for celebrities like Daisy Fuentes.

Whether or not a celebrity is as popular as Justin Bieber or Taylor Swift, retailers like having access to large numbers of fans who are young and active on social media and like to shop. “These celebrity fragrances give us the ability to really stay in that pop-culture space and to attract the millennials,” said Martine Reardon, Macy’s chief marketing officer. “Millennials are one of the most important demographics in terms of buying power. That is one of our key focuses.” Macy’s is responsible for over half of national department sales of celebrity fragrances annually, stocking scents by Mr. Bieber and Ms. Swift, as well as Lady Gaga, Nicki Minaj and Paris Hilton, among others.

“Social media is very, very targeted,” Mr. Cohan said. “You can really understand your customer base and touch them, and you can do it more frequently at a 10th of the cost, and you can measure response instantaneously.” Ms. Polizzi, for example, has over six million followers on Twitter and is approaching five million “likes” on her Facebook page.

Buoyant initial sales are typically followed by a sharp decline several months later, inviting the steady introduction of items to take their place. This explains why there are so many follow-up fragrances on the market, like the 14 Paris Hilton scents that have been introduced since her first one in 2004.

“These are fragrances that are fast, excitement-building businesses, so when one fades, another comes out,” said Linda Wells, the editor in chief of Allure. “It’s almost like the release of albums or new movies. It’s a matter of all these additional fragrances kind of keeping that interest and momentum alive and the sales going.”

That timing actually works in the favor of a personality who may be in the spotlight for a fleeting time thanks to something like a reality show.

But “it does become baffling when certain celebrities come out with a fragrance,” Ms. Wells said. “You think, Well, Snooki, is she known for her gorgeous aroma? What is true is that this is a very fast, disposable business. The idea is to hit the fragrance out at the peak of a celebrity’s popularity and recognize that it’s going to be short-lived, and you move on.”

A version of this article appears in print on December 6, 2012, on page E3 of the New York edition with the headline: From Chanel No. 5 to Britney No. 11. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe